Egypt's army deposes Morsi, appoints Court head Adly Mansour

Adly Mansour, head of Egypt's High Constitutional Court, now President

The army had given Egypt's elected president Mohamed Morsi and its
Muslim Brotherhood party 48 hours to negotiate with the Tamarod
("Rebellion"), the opposition represented by massive crowds in Tahrir
Square in Cairo and in cities across Egypt. When the deadline expired
on Wednesday afternoon, the army took action. It blocked all the
streets with armored personnel carriers, it shut down all the
pro-Muslim Brotherhood television stations, and it issued some
300 arrest warrants for Muslim Brotherhood members.

The military chief-of-staff Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi appeared on a
televised press conference and announced a "roadmap" that includes the
following:

The ousting of president Mohamed Morsi.

Suspending the constitution temporarily, until it can
be changed.

Handing power over to a new appointed president, Adly Mansour, the
head of Egypt's High Constitutional Court.

Forming a council for "national reconciliation."

Revising the laws for parliamentary elections.

Holding early presidential elections.

The army was responsible for governing Egypt for about a year
following the fall of Hosni Mubarak, and it seemed pretty clear that
they have no desire to have to govern again. At the press conference,
El-Sisi gave the podium to a series of non-army officials, including
the Coptic Orthodox patriarch and nobel peace prize winner Mohamed
ElBaradei, who may yet become president of Egypt. The press
conference also included a representative of the extremely religiously
conservative Salafist al-Nour party, who have been just as shut out by
Morsi as the liberals and secularists.

The army has appointed Judge Adly Mahmoud Mansour, 67, head of Egypt's
High Constitutional Court (HCC) to be the interim president until new
presidential elections can be held.

The only major group that didn't take part in the army's press
conference was the Muslim Brotherhood. They were invited, but
declined to attend. About 30% of Egypt's population are Muslim
Brotherhood supporters, and they are currently furious. So far, there
have only been sporadic acts of violence between the pro-Morsi and
anti-Morsi groups, but it seems likely that much worse violence is to
come. Al-Ahram (Cairo) and Al-Ahram

President Obama's Egypt statement does not use the word 'coup'

Egypt's army is claiming that its coup is not really a coup. The
reasoning is that a real coup is done in secret, killing the leader
and the replacing him with the leader of the coup plotters. But what
happened on Wednesday is not a coup. It was the army enforcing the
will of the vast majority of the people, and then providing a roadmap
to return to civilian rule within a few months.

The reason that the army is saying this kind of transparent nonsense
is that Egypt receives $1.5 billion in U.S. aid per year, and the
U.S. has a strict law that aid will be terminated to any country where
the army stages a coup against a democratically elected leader.

Everyone understands that it would be a disaster for the entire
region, including Israel, if U.S. aid to Egypt were suspended. For
that reason, both Cairo and Washington are being very careful not to
use the word "coup" when describing what happened on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama issued a very tough statement that did
not use the word "coup":

"The United States is monitoring the very fluid
situation in Egypt, and we believe that ultimately the future of
Egypt can only be determined by the Egyptian people. Nevertheless,
we are deeply concerned by the decision of the Egyptian Armed
Forces to remove President Morsy and suspend the Egyptian
constitution. I now call on the Egyptian military to move quickly
and responsibly to return full authority back to a democratically
elected civilian government as soon as possible through an
inclusive and transparent process, and to avoid any arbitrary
arrests of President Morsy and his supporters. Given today’s
developments, I have also directed the relevant departments and
agencies to review the implications under U.S. law for our
assistance to the Government of Egypt."

As of this writing, nobody seems to know where Mohamed Morsi is, and
he may have been arrested. Certainly some of his supporters have been
arrested. So one part of Obama's statement has already been violated.

The last sentence is the most threatening. It says, in essence, that
aid may be cut off if Egypt doesn't return to civilian rule quickly.
CBS News and White House statement